I joked with someone yesterday when asked what I thought about all the turmoil in Brandon (no police chief, no mayor) that it seemed the city is just on cruise control and about to pull a Ravnsborg and hit the ditch. I’m starting to wonder the same thing about the City of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County.

Remember all the endless road construction on the road in front of the jail last year? The road construction was supposed to be in conjunction with the new jail, but apparently when all is said and done, when it rains the road causes water to run down into the jail’s door. The price tag to fix it? $500K. There also seems to be a debate about who should pay for this colossal f’up? County or City? The county says they over budgeted for the jail so they have the money to fix the screwup the city caused and they don’t want anybody with the city to get angry with them. While the city was responsible for the road, I am curious why the taxpayers should foot the bill? What about our anger? Shouldn’t the engineer and contractor fix their mistake at their expense? That’s how it works in the real world. I had a friend a few years ago that had a leaky roof after her roof was re-shingled. After wrangling back and forth with the contractor he agreed to fix it at his expense. That is how these things work. But it seems like these days when contractors screw up roofs, windows, siding or HVAC systems for city owned facilities, we the taxpayers have to foot the bill and our cruise control government just says ‘oh well’.

I’m starting to think the Mayor’s office, the City Attorney’s office, the HR department, the Health Department and the Public Works department seem to all be on cruise control these days. I think everyone went to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic, fell asleep and never woke up.

7 Thoughts on “Who is paying for the $500K road screwup by the Minnehaha County Jail?

  1. rufusx on March 2, 2021 at 10:16 pm said:

    The contractors wqere only following the deign/blueprints provided by what engineer? That engineer is the responsible party in a truthful honest and fair world.

  2. Fear & Loathing in Sioux Falls on March 3, 2021 at 12:39 am said:

    “cruise control”? Could Jason use that as an affirmative defense? When Ted returned from Cancun, was it “cruise control”, or damage control?

    A flooding jail sounds Biblical. Why not vacate the street and call it a Billion car lot? A carlot is a French fool. What did Bush43 once say: “Fool me once, shame on …”? But that was Dubya, what’s our affirmative defense?

  3. D@ily Spin on March 3, 2021 at 6:24 pm said:

    I look at things differently. They’re gonna spend until there’s nothing left. Getting more tax from us is hardly possible considering the state of the economy. I still have my catalytic converter. Sell it before it’s stolen. Also a good approach for government theft.

  4. l3wis on March 3, 2021 at 7:05 pm said:

    Funny you bring up catalytic converters. There have been rumors for a couple of years that when you buy a county or city vehicle at the city/county auction a lot of the vehicles have missing CCs. So did thieves climb the fence before the auction, or was it an inside job? Inquiring minds want to know.

  5. anominous on March 5, 2021 at 9:51 pm said:

    a Lot of us dakotans prefere not to run cats on there veacles becuz it lowers performance and also becuz there is no law that says you have to here. all you have to do is remember not to park in tall grass or what not when ur pipes is hot.

  6. Come On on March 6, 2021 at 8:38 pm said:

    I heard that the road is where it’s supposed to be, but the building was built too low, the City supposedly told the County (or their architect) about it while the building was under construction, but they didn’t do anything about it.

  7. l3wis on March 7, 2021 at 8:08 am said:

    Thanks for the clarification, and probably the reason why the county isn’t going after the city to fix it. Either way, whether it is the county, the city or a miscommunication, the taxpayers are on the hook for the bill.

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